[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer
[A/N]
Thanks for all your reviews. I love to read all your thoughts on my little Rosella fic here. Your input makes this whole project a lot more fun for me. Let's see how things turn out. Shall we?
Today's chapter is dedicated to Leslie for always having my back. I cherish your friendship, girl.
**12**
There were days when everything went wrong from start to finish. Today seemed to be one of them for Alice Brandon. The shower she had taken had washed off the repulsive stench of vomit and milkshake but Alice still didn't feel much better.
"Nobody takes as long to shower as you do." Jasper stated, standing up from the edge of the bed.
Alice started fidgeting around with the zipper of her dress. She had preferred wearing her Chanel blouse for the dinner tonight. That blouse made her look a bit older and way more sophisticated.
"Come here." Jasper told her. "I'll zip you up." His right hand rested on her narrow hips while he pushed up the zipper very carefully. "This is a nice dress."
"I hope no one is going to puke on it." Alice said. "That was so gross."
Jasper chuckled. "I'm sorry. The thought of you sitting around, getting puked on out of nowhere. That's just too funny, Darlin'."
"Don't call me Darlin'. I don't like it." The dainty woman snarled at him, narrowing her eyes angrily.
He kissed her cheek and rubbed his thumb down her neck. "You had your hair cut too."
"It looks better this way. Don't you think?" she asked, putting a pair of dangling silver bracelets on.
"It's pretty. Are we ready to go now or should we go through anything again?"
She shook her head. "Not necessary. You mother doesn't know it yet but she's going to love me."
"Fantastic. That's all I want. Why don't you go downstairs and have a drink? I'll be with you in a minute."
Grabbing a scarf to wrap it around her shoulders, Alice walked out of the room. She liked having a drink before dinner. It would help her nerves. Those weren't the best in the last time. Unfortunately drinking was out of the question for her. At least it was until she could do that goddamn test…
On the nightstand in the hotel room, Jasper's cell started vibrating. He almost dropped it, his hands quivering with anticipation. Finally! A message after all those days of torturous silence.
"I hate you for being a coward." The text read. "But I will still love you forever."
Jasper put his head between his hands and sighed. He had fucked up so badly. Now, how was he supposed to get out of this mess?
Meanwhile, Alice had made it downstairs to the lobby of the hotel. She cringed when she saw Bella and the little puke girl sitting at one of the tables.
Her appetite must have had returned because the girl was chatting happily while she dipped some chicken nuggets into ketchup. At least there didn't seem to be a milkshake involved this time around.
"Hey there," Bella greeted Alice, waving her hand. "Do you want to sit with us?"
"Why not," Alice mumbled, pulling out the chair between Resha and her mother. "How's your stomach doing, young lady?"
"I'm sorry for puking on you." Resha said, slurping on her soda. "I was really sick."
Alice's lips twitched into a smile. "I accept your apology. Your Mommy is going to buy me a new blouse and everything is going to be fine again. Won't it?"
Bella nodded her head. "It might take a while for me to pay you back but that's okay, I hope."
"Of course," Alice assured her. "I don't mind."
"Thanks." Bella whispered. She hated that money was so tight at the moment. If only Asshole would man up and start paying child support, like he was supposed to. Trying to get custody? My ass…
"Have you known Jasper's family for long?" Alice asked, playing around on her bracelets. "This wedding is going to be big. Do you like big weddings?"
"Rose and I are very close friends since we were kids." Bella said. "To answer your other question, the answer is no. I don't like big weddings." I especially don't like this particular wedding, Bella added in her head. If only she could bring Rosalie back to her senses. Cancelling the wedding would make Rose unhappy though. But maybe going through with it would only make her more miserable in the long run. God, this situation really sucked badly.
"I don't like big weddings either." Alice stated. "If I get married I want a small, intimate ceremony with only the people I'm closest to."
"I don't think, I'll ever get married." Bella told Alice frankly. "Why would anyone need a piece of paper to tell you to whom you belong?"
"That's not what it's about." Alice said. "Marriage is a good thing if it's between the right people. Just because some marriages are meant to fail doesn't mean that goes for all of them."
A little blonde girl rushed towards the table they were sitting on. "Come with me, Resha. Royce's making animals from balloons. It's so cool."
"Mommy, can I go with her?" Resha asked, dropping her fork on the plate. "Pleaase?"
"It's fine. You can go and play with Jane." Bella said, wiping Resha's ketchup-smeared mouth with a napkin before the girl rushed off.
"Cute little thing." Alice stated as soon as Resha was out of sight. "I'm sorry I was so rude before. I was overreacting."
"I'm sorry my daughter puked on you. I shouldn't have allowed her that milkshake."
"It's probably not that easy telling your kids no when they want something, right?"
Bella nodded. "I'm always the strict one and her Dad is the good parent who allows her everything."
Alice ordered a glass of white wine that she didn't touch at all when the waitress placed it in front of her. "Are you and your ex divorced?"
"Separated, Tyler and I never got married. Like I said before, I don't actually see much use in the whole concept."
Alice rolled her fingertip over the edge of her glass. "But weddings are so romantic. Don't you think?"
"I'm not an expert when it comes to romance." Bella confessed. "Tyler was my first boyfriend. Then the accident with Resha happened and I got stuck with him."
Alice cleared her throat. "Maybe you'll meet someone else soon. Weddings are usually good to find dates. My parents met at a wedding. Isn't that romantic?"
Bella lifted her glass to her lips. This was her second glass of wine. There wasn't enough alcohol in the whole world to drown her inappropriate thoughts about her best friend.
"I'm not interested in dating anyone at the moment." Bella stated. "Well, there is someone I like but things are very complicated."
Crap, why are you telling her that now? Bella reproached herself. Are you already drunk or just stupid?
Alice straightened her back. "Complicated love interests are such a sad thing. Love is supposed to be easy, isn't it?"
"I'm not in love." Bella told Alice quickly. "It's just…there is this…friend, a close friend and recently I've started to feel this pull."
"You mean like you are attracted to him sexually now? That's perfectly normal."
Yes, it probably would be, if Rosalie happened to have a dick, Bella thought.
"There you are, Darlin'." Jasper called out, hugging Alice from behind. "Why did you have chicken wings? We are going to have dinner in like five minutes."
"Resha was hungry." Bella told him. "Your new girlfriend is nice. You should try not to mess things up."
xxxx
Rosalie had been looking forward to getting married since she was a little girl. Again and again, she had sat in her parents' living room, looking at their wedding picture for hours. This was what she wanted. Rose wanted someone to love her as much as her father had loved her Mom. Carlisle was meant to be that man for her. Still, things didn't feel right. No matter how often she told herself that everything was going to be fine, she still felt like running away.
"Isn't she the most lovely person, you have ever met, Marcus?" Carlisle stated, running his hand over Rosalie's fingertips. "I'm very lucky she has decided to give an old man like me a chance."
"You are not old, brother. " Marcus mumbled, petting his daughter's head. "Jane, honey, put that balloon away now. We're about to eat."
Minutes later when the little girl pressed her fork on the piece of meat on her plate, she frowned. "There is lots of red juice coming from my steak. Daddy, that's gross."
"Eat up." Jane's father demanded. "You've promised me to be a big girl and behave."
"Marcus, don't force the kid to eat when she doesn't like it." Rosalie stated. Maybe she and Carlisle should think of a different meal for the children to eat at the wedding. Bella would never get Resha into trying oysters.
Longingly, Bella gazed over to the other side of the table where her best friend was sitting between Emmett and Jasper's new girlfriend. Rose would rather sit with them instead of with her mother and Carlisle's family. His brother was the most depressed person, she had ever met. His wife's dead must have been really hard for him. There couldn't be anything worse than to lose the person you loved most.
Rosalie watched how Bella threw back her head and laughed over something Emmett had whispered into her ear. She really needs to start wearing her hair down more often, Rosalie thought. Bella was so beautiful. Rosalie had always thought her best friend to be pretty. Now, though, she couldn't stop noticing how Bella's dress hugged her chest deliciously tight. She could remember, talking Bella into buying it. Rose could also remember how soft the skin on Bella's back had felt like when she had helped Bella to zip it up.
"Can't believe my little Rosie princess is getting married," Royce chuckled, taking a sip from the half-empty glass of wine in front of him. "She used to be my little princess and now, she's all grown up."
Lucy swallowed the piece of filet mignon in her mouth and laughed a fake laughter. "Royce would have probably liked for her to stay a child forever. Carlisle, you need to know that Royce was her manager. My Rosie was the best little beauty pageant he ever trained. Wasn't she Royce?"
"Like a dream come true." Royce stated, nodding his head eagerly. Then, his eyes moved over to the little blonde girl that was sitting next to Rosalie's joke of a husband-to-be. Adorable, he thought, running his tongue over his moustache to lick off a bit of sauce.
Rosalie's stomach heaved. To have Royce here, to have him gaze at Carlisle's poor little niece like that. It was just too much for her to handle. She pressed her hand against her mouth and jumped from her chair, barely making it to the restrooms of the restaurant.
Someone grabbed her hair, holding it tightly together in her neck, while Rosalie threw up. It had been so long since she had felt as dirty like this.
"Breathe, Beautiful. Deep breaths, that helps with the nausea."
Rosalie plopped back against Bella's arms. Her friend handed her some toilet paper to clean her mouth. "I'm sorry."
"You don't need to apologize for being sick." Bella stated. She stood up to rinse some paper towels under the faucet. Then, she pressed them gently against Rosalie's forehead. "Is it better now?"
Rosalie nodded weakly. "Can you bring me to my room? I don't feel like making it through this dinner."
"Of course, honey. God, you are so pale. Do you want me to bring Carlisle? Maybe you need a doctor?"
"I don't have anything broken." Rosalie whispered. "I'm just…it's just…too much. Everything is too much."
Twenty minutes later, when Bella had tugged in Rosalie in the wooden-framed queen-sized bed, she went downstairs again. Rosalie's nerves were blank. Bella knew something like that was going to happen. Rose always tried to please her annoying mother and then things ended with her breaking from all the pressure Lucy put on her daughter.
Leaning back against the wall behind her, Bella closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. Tomorrow, she was going to talk to Rose. Sometimes as a best friend you needed to tell your friend things she was going to be furious at you for.
"Is Rosalie feeling better?" Alice asked. "At least, she didn't throw up on me too."
"Will I forever be the Mom of the child who threw up on you for the rest of the future?" Bella snapped angrily. "My daughter is six. She has travel sickness and a dairy allergy. Get over it."
The pearl-earrings, she had helped Rosalie to take out, fell down on the carpet. Bella and Alice simultaneously kneeled down to pick them up again. "Wow, those are amazing. Cartier still makes the most beautiful sets of pearl-earrings."
"You can tell what brand they are?"
Alice smiled. "I could tell you a lot more about them. Sorry, I'm kind of biased when it comes to jewelry. My father owns a shop."
"I see." Bella murmured, rubbing her chin with her thumb. "I'm curious. Could you do that with every set of pearl-earrings?"
"Sure, I think so. Why are you asking?"
Bella cleared her throat. She needed to be careful what to tell Alice in order not to endanger any of her investigations. Charlie had told her to let the dead rest in peace but didn't Jasper's family deserve to see his killer getting punished?
"If I'd email you a picture of some old pearl-earrings, Alice, is there any chance you could manage to figure out, where they were made?"